Pentagon: Strike killed 30 Afghan civilians

WASHINGTON - U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan on
Aug. 22 killed some 30 civilians, far more than the military has
previously acknowledged, Defense officials said Wednesday.

The
probe found that the strikes against a suspected Taliban compound in
the western province of Herat killed about 30 civilians — not the five
to seven the U.S. originally acknowledged, according to a Pentagon
official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to speak on the record. The New York Times first reported
the new finding in its Wednesday editions.

The
Afghan government and U.N. had said that the August operation killed
some 90 civilians. An original U.S. investigation found that up to 35
militants and seven civilians were killed in that strikes, which
strained U.S.-Afghan relations.

Gen. David McKiernan, the commander of NATO
troops in Afghanistan, ordered that a second U.S. military
investigation be conducted shortly after pictures and video images
surfaced that appeared to show 30 to 40 victims of the attack laid out
in a mosque in Azizabad, including at least 10 dead children.

A
joint delegation of Afghan lawmakers and local officials investigated
the aftermath of the strike and concluded that around 90 Afghan
civilians, including 60 children, were killed. That finding was backed
by a preliminary U.N. report.

The new U.S. report concludes that fewer than 20 militants died in the operation, the Times reported.

Zemeri
Bashary, Afghanistan's Interior Ministry spokesman, said Wednesday that
he had not yet seen the new U.S. report, but that the Afghan government
stood by its original findings.

Shift from IraqSeparately
on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged Eastern European
leaders to shift their military efforts from Iraq to Afghanistan, where
their forces are more urgently needed.

Speaking
at a meeting of the Southeast European Defense Ministerial, Gates said
that as the security situation in Iraq continues to improve, countries
should consider filling the "urgent need" for trainers in Afghanistan.

"Your
assistance will not only help Afghanistan better protect and care for
its citizens, it will also reinforce your important role in insuring
peace and stability around the globe," Gates said during a press
conference with the Macedonian minister of defense.

Combined,
the 11 members of SEDM (not counting the United States) have nearly
5,100 troops already in Afghanistan. Just one of the member nations,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, has no troops there. It was not immediately clear
how many of those nations have troops in Iraq.

The sales pitch resonated with the
Macedonians. Philip T. Reeker, U.S. ambassador to Macedonia, said the
small country — which has 77 troops in Iraq and 136 troops in
Afghanistan — has "indicated an openness" to the idea. He said that as
their Iraq deployment comes to an end they are looking at sending
additional forces to Afghanistan.

The
U.S. has made it clear that it will gradually shift more troops to
Afghanistan, as force levels in Iraq go down in the coming months.
Commanders in Afghanistan have said they need as many as 10,000 more
forces, in addition to the contingent of Marines and the Army brigade
that have already been ordered to go later this year and early next
year.